Chapter 1 - Roland's Goodbye

One-Shot



Roland's Goodbye



Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of the characters. I also do not own Evanescence - My Immortal.



Okay, this if my 3rd one-shot, and this fict is for Animaniac, I hope you like it! ^-^



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The golden sun was high in the sky as the fluffy white clouds were few in the bright blue sky. The air was crisp in fresh as the smell of a small rain was in Domino. The golden rays of the sun shone on the beautiful green grass, and the flowers that covered the ground. Spring arrived and it was one of the most beautiful days many people had seen.



Seto and Mokuba Kaiba were outside in the scenic garden just outside of the Kaiba mansion. Seto just sat on the edge of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon fountain that was located in the middle of the beautiful wildflower garden. Seto watched his little brother as he ran around the back yard, chasing the birds whenever they landed on the ground to have a drink of water that was still on the ground from a rainstorm that had happened just the night before.



A very rare smile, not a smirk, a smile was on the face of the handsome CEO. He had taken the day off of work because of the puppy-dog eyes of his little brother. The sun played across his pale face and it shone in his dark sapphire blue eyes. The leaves on the trees were a beautiful dark green and the flowers began to bloom on the cheery blossom tree right next to the fountain. Seto Kaiba sighed gently as Mokuba finally collapsed from exhaustion, finally giving the birds a chance to drink.



Kaiba stood up and walked over to his little brother, and lifted his tired body of the ground. “Mokuba, I told you running around like that for that long wasn't very healthy… Especially for not even having any food in your stomach… You need energy…” Kaiba said to his little raven haired brother.



Kaiba walked into the large mansion, and Mokuba sprung from his arms into the kitchen as soon as he set foot on the marble floor. Mokuba zoomed to the kitchen and quickly threw open the fridge and grabbed out a soda. “Oh, no you don't!” Kaiba said, quickly snatching it away from his and handing him a juice instead. “No caffeine this early for you…”



“Big brother!” Mokuba cried, “Please… It's just one soda… Please?” Mokuba said, using the puppy eyes again.



“Mokuba, I want you to take better care of yourself, I don't want you to have a soda at 8 o'clock in the morning… Especially a regular one…” Kaiba simply replied as he shut the fridge door, exited the kitchen, and walked up the stairs to his office.



Mokuba sighed as he opened the bottled orange juice and followed after his older brother. He took a small sip and stuck out his tongue at the sour taste. “Ewww… This is one of those 100% juice and no sugar ones… Gross…” Mokuba moaned as he opened his brother's office door and sat on the leather chair in front of his brother's desk.



Kaiba took out his laptop and began typing on it as he logged into the Kaiba Corp. mainframe. He put on his portable phone and attached it to his ear and spoke to the computer, “This is President/CEO of Kaiba Corp.”



“Please state your name…” the computer asked back.



“Seto Kaiba.” He answered.



“Voice matched, Welcome Seto Kaiba, now write in security password…” it said in the computer voice. Seto Kaiba typed in the 7 letter digit and it allowed him into his company to start on his work.



“Seto…” Mokuba whined in a squeaky tone. “You said you were taking the day off…”



“I was, but I might as well work... I have a business meeting coming up tomorrow, which will probably be a big waste of time, and I'll lose a ton of work time tomorrow, so I might as well do the work now…” Kaiba replied as his fingers zoomed quickly over the keyboard.



A sad look appeared on Mokuba's face as a few tears stung his violet eyes. His brother was always like this... Promising to spend time with him and ending up working the whole night long… Roland stood by the door and seen Mokuba's head down, the shadows that were from his hair covered his grief-stricken eyes.



(Roland's POV)



I saw the tears going down the young boy's cheeks. All he wanted was for his brother to get a day of relaxation and to just spend a little bit of time with him… I knew that Seto was abused by his father and frankly, I hated it, but I was never able to stop it. I knew that if it didn't stop, Seto would grow up to whom he is now, a heartless teenager.



Seto Kaiba rarely smiles, and he doesn't sleep, barely eats anything, and just practically lives on coffee… and he spends every waking moment on his laptop. Gozuburo used to make Seto sit on the couch doing homework for about 19 hours straight, and most of the time, even more then that…



If Seto ever even started to nod off from lack of no food or sleep, Gozuburo would strip Kaiba of his shirt and use his belt, the one with the large steel clasps, and slam it as hard as he could along his back more then a dozen times a day. I used to treat Seto's wounds once Seto passed out and Gozuburo left the room, fuming in anger.



Once Gozuburo left the room, I ran up to the small boy and seen the blood from his beating that was splattered on the carpet, and on more then one occasion, Seto was barely alive after it. I took care of him, without letting Mr. Gozuburo know about it. The doctors that treated him often pleated with me to call the police and have Gozuburo arrested for child abuse and attempted murder.



But if he knew that I knew about this, he would surely kill me, and the police had nothing against one of the world's most powerful men. But I couldn't do anything for the 2 brothers… I always wanted to quit and stop seeing the horrible way this man tortured young Seto… It always pained me to know that this child had lost his mother right after his brother was born, and his father dropped them off at the orphanage when young Mokuba could barely even walk…



Raised in the orphanage and outcasts even there, Kaiba still swore to protect his little brother at any costs… Even the cost of his life… He got into many a fight and often got beaten for doing absolutely nothing… But he still protected his brother of whatever innocence the young boy had left. Once Gozuburo adopted him, he studied night and day, working as hard as he could do something with his life and take care of his brother, but slowly, Gozuburo tired to turn Mokuba against him.



But the bond those 2 had shared was impenetrable. They would always be there for one another; they spent their whole lives, with no other family but each other… And no one could even break that bond…



(Normal POV)



Roland was 40 now… He had taken care for these boys most of his adult life… Seto Kaiba is 17 years old, and Mokuba is 12… Mokuba still is like a child… Sheltered from the world by his older brother… The innocence had left Seto a very long time ago… He had become a wall of ice and it showed to everyone but Mokuba… In Mokuba's eyes, Seto is still the big brother he knew at the orphanage… The one that smiled… And that's how he would always see his brother…



Roland stood there outside the door, watching them and being unnoticed by the two, when a terrible ache formed into his chest. His eyes grew large as she gripped right where the pain was in his chest, he could feel his heart forcing beats, but he knew he was having a heart attack. His breath was trapped as he collapsed on the floor and was gasping for air.



Kaiba's eyes fell off his computer and looked to the open door. He saw Roland on the floor, barely even moving. Kaiba flew up from his chair and ran to his bodyguard with Mokuba following close behind. Kaiba ran up to Roland, who was still struggling to breathe. “Mokuba! Go get somebody!” Kaiba shouted frantically as he kneeled down by him.



“Who?” Mokuba asked.



“ANYBODY! I don't care! Just go!” Kaiba shouted back at his little brother. Mokuba ignored the way his brother was yelling at him and ran down the hall as fast as his 12 year old legs would carry him. Kaiba turned his attention back to Roland, who was breathing was a little bit better.



“Roland…” Kaiba said, slightly shaking him. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?” Kaiba asked, but he was not getting ant response from him. “Oh, come on!” Kaiba shouted as he shook him a little harder. `Mokuba, please hurry…' Kaiba said in his thoughts as his eyes became clouded with worry.



“Master Kaiba!” the Kaiba Corp. doctor shouted as he pulled the napkin that was in his shirt when he was just having breakfast and ran up to the two. “What's his condition?” the doctor asked as he kneeled by Roland.



“I don't know, I was just doing my work as usual and I heard a thump outside of my door, and I just seen him laying here, not even moving…” Kaiba replied.



“Okay… We have to take him to one of the rooms, so, come on, help me pick him up…” the doctor replied. Kaiba picked him up from under his arms and lifted him up with the help of the doctor and they carried Roland to one of the medical bedrooms. Which was even better then any hospital room you could ever even find in Japan. Kaiba and the doctor laid him on the bed.



“Maids, get blankets pronto!” Kaiba said to the nurses that followed them.



“Right away, Master Kaiba!” the maids replied before bowing low and scurrying out if the room to get what he had requested.



“Okay, so, what happened?” Kaiba asked the doctor who was now working on him, putting him on oxygen and checking his blood levels.



“Well, it appears Mr. Roland has just had a heart attack, he seems pretty stable right now, but I can tell that there is something more that is wrong with him, but I can't detect what… I have to run a few more tests to be able to tell…” The doctor replied as the maids scurried back into the room and handed him the blankets.



“Here you go, Mr. Kaiba… Do you need anything else?” the maids asked simultaneously.



“No, just give the doctor some space to work, and make some soup or something for Roland when he wakes up…” Kaiba answered, in his normal bored tone.



“If he wakes up…” the doctor said as he put the stethoscope on his neck again after checking Roland's hear beat.



Kaiba's head jerked toward the doctor in shock, “What do you mean?” he growled.



After sighing deeply and running his fingers over the bridge of his nose, trying to sooth an upcoming headache, he closed his eyes and said, “I don't think he'll wake up, his heart is dying… Not even having an implant, and giving him a newer heart won't help… He seems to have a disease that attacks the heart… Even at his age… I mean, Roland is a very healthy man, taking care of a child and being a bodyguard for a teenage celebrity CEO… But it seems that this disease was passed by his family… and nothing can really help that… I would be able to help him more if I knew before… To put things in perspective, he's going to die…”



Mokuba's eyes quickly grew with fresh tears as he gave big eyes to the doctor, “You're not serious, are you?” Mokuba squeaked as the tears started to fall down his face.



Kaiba's eyes were on Mokuba as he seen the tears run down them. `It's so easy for him to cry… He just does it… I haven't cried since I was about 7 years old… My heart grew to ice, and so did my outlook on the world, out of all the good, I seen one small wrong thing with it, and made an excuse not to even attempt to be near it…



Mokuba always seem good in everything… All I seen was everything wrong with it… Mokuba always found the good in people and tried to bring with out… my little brother could make anyone smile… He is so sweet and gentle… But there is one heart even he can only at the ice…



And that is my heart…



It is so full of malice, and covered with ice, my brother, the one whom I have taken care of my whole life is the only one in the world that can make me barely even smile…”



Mokuba's head fell as he sat on the chair by the bed, and he took the box of tissues by the bed and put a few to his face and began crying even harder as the doctor tried to make Roland as comfortable as possible. “So, how long would you expect that he will live?” Kaiba asked.



The doctor sighed once again and answered truthfully, “I say that he will only last about 2 hours at the most… I'll call his family…” the doctor replied as Kaiba walked over to his little brother and stood by his side and laid one hand on his brother's small shoulder.



“Okay… thank you…” Kaiba whispered to the doctor before the doctor left the room to call Roland's family. Kaiba looked down at his little brother and kneeled at his side. “Mokuba, you have to listen to me…” Kaiba said as he moved some of the hair out of the little raven haired boy's face.



Mokuba cast his sad violet puppy-dog eyes at his big brother as Mokuba's lip was slightly trembling as the tears were still filling up in his eyes. “What is it, Seto?” he asked in a small strained voice as the crystalline tears fell from his cheeks.



Kaiba sighed as he wiped away the tears with his index finger off Mokuba's soft cheeks. “Listen… I know this is hard… You never experienced losing someone before… but Mokuba, you can't deny it… Death is a natural part of life… Like when our mom died… She didn't want to… But it was just her time… And you should be thankful that she was willing to die to give birth to you… She loved you that much… And one day, I'm going to die as well… I can't say when, but it is going to happen one day, whether I want it to or not… But I want you to understand that it's something that you can prevent… It just happens… When I die, I don't want you to cry, okay?” Kaiba said to his little brother, which only made Mokuba cry even harder.



Mokuba threw himself in his older brother's arms and cried hard into his chest. Kaiba just sighed gently as he felt his shirt that he was wearing was getting soaked as his brother's tears seeped into it. Kaiba put his arms around Mokuba's trembling body as Kaiba felt completely helpless. Kaiba laid his head on his brother's shoulder as the minutes that passed seemed like a lifetime. Mokuba was scared and more afraid then ever now… And so was Kaiba… Kaiba didn't know what to say… this comforting thing was new to him and he had just mad it worse…



Kaiba's eyes slid shut as he held his little brother tight, trying to do everything to stop him from crying. Without knowing it, Roland stirred and is eyes opened and his head turned to the side and he seen Kaiba, who seemed to be in grief, and Mokuba, who was crying in his older brother's arms. “Master Kaiba…” Roland whispered.



Kaiba opened his eyes and matched them with Roland. “Roland…” Kaiba replied as his lips were slightly parted.



“What happened?” Roland asked.



“You had a heart attack…” Kaiba replied as Mokuba looked to his side and seen Roland awake as well. “But Roland…”



“Yes?” Roland asked in a small and strained voice.



“You're dying… I don't know an easy way to put this… It seems that you have a disease… and it's killing your heart… And there is nothing anyone can do…” Kaiba answered.



Roland just lightly laughed and simply said, “I knew it…” Kaiba and Mokuba were just looking at the 40 year old strangely when Roland continued, “Men in my family, near their 40's… They died mysteriously, and we just all suspected that it was just natural… But I knew it had to be some sort of thing that just ran in the family….”



Mokuba had a fresh pair of tears in his eyes as he hugged Roland. Roland smiled and hugged the 12 year old back. “There is something that I need to tell you that I never had told anyone before…” Roland said as he matched eyes with the 2 brothers.



“What is it, Roland?” Kaiba asked, showing no emotion whatsoever on his face.



“You see, I tried as much as I could, that when you two were still young, and you had been with Gozuburo for about 1 year now, and he had just started to abuse you, Master Kaiba… And one of the first times that he had left me in charge of you when he went out of town for a business meeting or dinner, I always took you to arcades, and I always took you to eat afterwards… I gave you hamburgers, French fries, chicken tenders, milkshakes, ice cream, banana splits, the works! I just wanted you two to at least have a bit more of a childhood then you had before…” Roland replied as he laid his head back on his pillow.



“I remember that…” Kaiba said after a long silence as his head was down, the memories flooding back into his mind as he continued, “Right after Gozuburo left, he put Mokuba and I into the limo and drove us to the mall and took us to a toy shop, and then to the food courts for lunch… The after the mall, he took us to a small Dairy Queen that was just around the corner…” (A/N: I don't own Dairy Queen.) “Mokuba was just a kid still… Only 6 years old… and I was just 11… I can't believe I remember that…” Kaiba said as a real genuine smile appeared on his face.



Roland seen the smile on the CEO's face and nearly cried. The last time he saw a smile like that on Kaiba's face was when he was 12… And now, he was 17 and was classified as a heartless and evil teen… But he became only this way by the terrible man that ruined his life. Roland soon felt the same terrible pain develop in his chest again, and he knew now that his time was drawing near. But he had no time to act as the disease suddenly made it stop. Roland's breath stopped and his eyes closed as his heart beat it's last.



Kaiba gasped as he saw Roland die. Kaiba seemed to be lost as he seen Mokuba start to cry again. He had just given Mokuba a speech about death… But Kaiba wasn't even sure that he even understood it yet… A strange form of a drop of water fell down one of his eyes as he caught it with his index finger. Was this what it was like to cry? It had been so long… Roland had been his bodyguard for 7 years… He had always been there for him when he needed it most, and when Roland needed him one time…



He had failed…



(1 week later and Kaiba's POV)



Me and Mokuba sat, dresses in black in the front row of a gathering at the cemetery. A priest was up on the small stage, speaking scriptures out of the Bible… Mokuba was crying in a tissue as I sat with that normal emotionless face as I sighed gently. Roland's family sat by us as his mother was crying. She threw herself into my chest and cried. I wanted to throw her off of me, but couldn't… something was holding me back… Instead, I placed my arm around her and tried to comfort her.



A woman walked on stage and began to sing a gentle melody as the mourners were allowed to go up to the coffin after the priest finished his prayer.



“I'm so tired of being here… Suppressed by all my childish fears… And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave, `cause your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone…”



Roland's mother eventually let me go as they went up to the coffin and said their final goodbyes. The mother afterwards, ran off the stage crying, and the people with her followed.



“These wounds won't seem to heal; this pain is just too real… There's just too much that time cannot erase… When you cried, I wiped away all of your tears… When you screamed, I'd fight away all of your fears, and I held your hand through all of these years… But you still have… all of me…”



It was time for me and Mokuba to go pay our respects… I followed him slowly as we were walking up the steps. I stopped at the coffin and seen Roland, so pale and lifeless… I didn't know what this was like…



“You used to captivate me by your resonating light… Now I'm bound by the life you left behind… Your face, it haunt my once pleasant dreams…Your voice, it chased away all of the sanity in me…”



Roland was sort of like a father to me… He took care of me when Gozuburo would abuse me… He would make sure that my wounds were at least taken care of so I wouldn't get an infection… When Gozuburo would leave… Roland would try to give me and Mokuba at least a few good memories to at least remember…



“These wounds won't seem to heal… This pain is just too real… There's just too much that time cannot erase… When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears… When you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your fears… I held your hand through all of these years… and you still have… all of me…”



I've had mostly bad memories my whole life… But there was a rare occasion that there was a good one… and… he was always part of it…



“I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone, but though you're still with me, I've been alone all along…! When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears, when you'd scream, I'd fight away all of your tears… And I've held your hand through all of these years… But you still have… all of me… Ooh… Me… Ooh… Me… Ooh…”



And that's how I'll remember him…



The End!

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